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Asset Protection Scams

Asset Protection Shysters
Wanna become an "Asset Protection Consultant"? Go to an expensive "Asset Protection Seminar"? How come your CPA puts together "Asset Protection Plans" but never seems to go to court? We answer these questions, and more.

NEW! Asset Protection Group Scam
Federal Trade Commission shuts down Asset Protection Group, Inc., and has it placed into receivership for a franchise scam involving convicted felon Rick Neiswonger.

NEW! Texas Joint Stock Company Scam
The Texas Joint Stock Company scam is an form of asset protection scam that these days seems to be run mostly from the Dallas area by a bunch of con artists who got into trouble a few years ago selling bogus Pure Trusts...

NEW! Corporations Sole Scam
Beware the "Corporation Sole" being marketing by scam artists as a tax planning and asset protection tool.

Bearer Shares
These are unnamed, unlisted shares which evince equity ownership in a corporation. While the concept of bearer shares sounds good, there are some specific reasons why they should be avoided.

Domestic Grantor Trusts ("Living Trusts")
Abuse warning.

SEC v. Merrill Scott
The most high profile of the "high net worth" law firms is slammed by the SEC for putting its clients into bogus investments, running a pyramid scheme, and embezzling client assets. The perfect example of seemingly legitimate professionals gone bad.

STRANGE! Read the Summary of the Receiver of Merrill Scott regarding the allegations that Merrill Scott misappropriated in excess of $9.5 million in client funds, and then had to break in to their own offices to retrieve their client files! http://www. merrillscott.com/ Receivership Summary.pdf (in Adobe .pdf format).

Jerome Schneider Plea Agreement - Jerome sells his offshore clients out by agreeing to testify against them in exchange for a reduced sentence after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud.

Schneider and Witmeyer Plead Guilty - Department of Justice Press Release.

Offshore Gurus Jerome Schneider and Eric Witmeyer Indicted
The author of some of the worst books on offshore and asset protection planning and his flakey tax attorney have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the IRS and for wire fraud.

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Asset Protection: Concepts and Strategies for Protecting Your Wealth is unlike any other work on the topic of protecting asset from creditors. For the first time, a book examines the fundamental and theoretical underpinnings of asset protection planning, and takes a contrarian view of popular and heavily-marketed gimmicks such as offshore trusts that have landed their owners in jail when challenged. This work uniquely takes a holistic approach to asset protection planning that considers the specific circumstances of each individual client rather than forcing all clients into one of three or four “canned” solutions.